Congonhas Domestic Airport (IATA Airport Code: CGH), is São Paulo's second airport, situated 8km from the city downtown. It is administered by Infraero, and as of 2003, was the busiest airport in Brazil, with 12,500,000 passengers passing through it.

In 1957, the airport was the third busiest of the world for cargo and freight.

Its name came from a plant that was common in the area where the airport was built in 1919. It was the city's main airport until 1985, when Guarulhos International Airport was built because of congestion at Congonhas and because Congonhas could not handle transatlantic flights.

Nowadays, the airport continues to be important to the city for regional and short-distance domestic flights. Even with the construction of Guarulhos Airport (35km away from the city's downtown), the Congonhas airport continues to face the problem of congestion, both for the number of passengers and the number of flights.

Congonhas is the main hub of Gol, a low-fare airline, and the third largest airline in Brazil.

General information

• Number of Passengers: 12,500,000 (2003)
• Runways:
  • 17R/35L - 1939 x 49 m; equipped with CAT l on 17R
  • 17L/35R - 1437 x 49 m
• Main Terminal: 37,311 m²
• Companies: Gol, TAM, Varig, VASP
• Main destinations: Belo Horizonte (flights every 15min), Brasília (flights every 30min), Rio de Janeiro (flights every 5 min)